different between unspeakable vs nefand

English

Etymology

From Middle English unspekable, equivalent to un- +? speakable.

Pronunciation

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative more unspeakable, superlative most unspeakable)

1. Incapable of being spoken or uttered

   Synonyms: unutterable, ineffable, inexpressible

   • 1855-1882, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, book xv,

     The endless pride and outstretching of man, unspeakable joys and sorrows.

2. Unfit or not permitted to be spoken or described.
   • 1916, James Joyce, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, ch. 3,

     The miser will remember his hoard of gold, the robber his ill-gotten wealth, the angry and revengeful and merciless murderers their deeds of blood and violence in which they revelled, the impure and adulterous the unspeakable and filthy pleasures in which they delighted.

3. Extremely bad or objectionable.

   an unspeakable fool

   an unspeakable play

   • 1926, H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider,

     Yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:indescribable

Derived terms

• unspeakably
• unspeakableness

Translations

References

• unspeakable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “unspeakable” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "unspeakable" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "unspeakable" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “unspeakable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• "unspeakable" at Rhymezone (Datamuse, 2006).
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)

Scots

Etymology

un- +? speak +? -able

Adjective

unspeakable (comparative mair unspeakable, superlative maist unspeakable)

1. unspeakable

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n??fænd/

Adjective

nefand (comparative more nefand, superlative most nefand)

1. (obsolete) unspeakable; nefandous
   • 1616, Richard Sheldon, A Survey of the Miracles of the Church of Rome

     nefand buggeries.

Anagrams

• fanned

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin nefandus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /n??fant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /n??fan/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ne?fant/
• Rhymes: -ant

Adjective

nefand (feminine nefanda, masculine plural nefands, feminine plural nefandes)

1. nefandous

Further reading

• “nefand” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “nefand” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “nefand” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “nefand” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.